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Rosetta Disk Designed For 2,000 Years Archive
Hugh Pickens writes "Kevin Kelly has an interesting post about an archive designed with an estimated lifespan of 2,000 -10,000 years to serve future generations as a modern Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta disk contains analog 'human-readable' scans of scripts, text, and diagrams using nickel deposited on an etched silicon disk and includes 15,000 microetched pages of language documentation in 1,500 different languages, including versions of Genesis 1-3, a universal list of the words common for each language, and pronunciation guides. Produced by the Long Now Foundation, the plan is to replicate the disk promiscuously and distribute them around the world in nondescript locations so at least one will survive their 2,000-year lifespan. 'This is one of the most fascinating objects on earth,' says Oliver Wilke. 'If we found one of these things 2,000 years ago, with all the languages of the time, it would be among our most priceless artifacts. I feel a high responsibility for preserving it for future generations.'"
This idea has been around for a few years - I remember reading about it back in 02001 or so.
I'd love to buy one, however they aren't actually producing or selling them - if you want one you have to cough up 25000 USD to support their foundation - no idea if anyone actually has one yet or if this is just a hypothetical. Which means they're not going to be ubiquitous any time soon, and undermines their whole purpose.
In my opinion this is far more useful than anything else they're engaged in, including the clock. Even if they made disks with a cheaper process that lasted only 1000 or so years in normal conditions, and could sell them for 100 USD, they'd be a great asset for future archeologists and a very provocative statement in our society, which more than ever values the present over the future.
>> including versions of Genesis 1-3,
What a dumb idea. Do we really want to send the incorrect message to the future that everyone really beleived stupid stuff like the world was created in 7 days?